ABSTRACT

Two quotations on page 60 suggest very different understandings of the concepts ‘space’ and ‘place’. In one, Aristotle suggests that space is the a priori emptiness prerequisite for the existence of things, and place is no more than the portion of that emptiness a thing occupies. Throughout history, other factors have helped push ‘architecture as identification of place’ down the list of priorities. These are in addition to the common tendency for people to find it easier to think in terms of the tangible – such as buildings – rather than the intangible – such as space and the places into which architecture organises it. In thinking of architecture as identification of place one is on firmer ground. Both the bicycle shed and the cathedral are works of architecture in that they are constituted of elements composed to identify places.